Big Anniversaries

My bird has learned a new trick. When he sees me inside the store, (as rare as that is) he'll wait outside the front doors for me. Luckily he has never attempted to come inside, though all I'd need to do is get him to follow me out if that ever occurred. I doubt he will, he seems very content with the outside.

Today is the 10th year anniversary of the best mmo ever made. That being the original Planetside.

No screenshots this time, this is mainly an announcement that I may do another video soon.

Although before I close this. I'd like to ask all DT3 demo players. (Or even if you didn't play it and are familiar with the other 2 games.) If you could add/remove/change one thing in DT3, what would it be?

An Assortment of Stuff

My bird likes to fly super close, he's almost flown into me on 2 occasions. It's a good thing they can course correct really fast. He really likes to land close to eye level now too, him and the bird in the video from last post. They're getting very brave.

Looks like he's about to say 'Sup!"

Ponies and Something Else
If you've followed the Internet this week, you may have come across this. I don't really know what to think of it, but I know I won't be going to see it.

I came across this thing. It's supposed to be some headband to improve your focus, thereby improving your gaming ability. My issue with this, aside from the lack on information on the site and inability to come up with reliable google results, is the way it's being advertised. Gamers haven't identified with this type of marketing for years. I think someone needs to tell these guys to get into the 21st century. That I doubt it does anything considering the site has no real data. I somewhat have a feeling this is some attempt at trolling.

Sad Cat Diary
A link is all that needs to be done for this.

DT3 Progress
I know I haven't talked much about DT3 lately. It's not that there isn't anything to talk about, but I just don't want to give away so much. As before though, Gate 5 is still going. Here's some screenshots.

It does have a few rule changes that I'll mention. The first one is that it uses checkpoints upon retrying. They utilize the same thing the Prime series did in that you will be fully healed up using one. To clarify, if you die in Gate 5, you do not restart at the beginning of the current map, but at the last activated checkpoint. Metroid's setup simply doesn't work for DT's normal style of gameplay and changing it up to match DT would remove the concept of Gate 5. This probably won't be the only time that this checkpoint setup will be used. There are two other locations in the game where this is planned.

The other thing changed is that all enemies in Gate 5 deal damage to you through your dash, which is disabled for about the first 20 minutes of it anyway. Jeremy informs the player upon regaining the dash of this change. Projectiles and traps are still avoidable in the usual method. Remember that the dash makes for a really handy and quick evasion.

To answer a frequent question about this Gate. It will not have a map like the Metroid games do. There will be a less detailed map available though. The first 2 Metroid games had no map and were of a much larger and maze like scale than this will be. It's not going to be very confusing without a map. Besides, I loved the NES days of drawing my own map. Have fun. :P

Planetside 2
Next week a rather large update will be hitting the game. If you didn't like the base connections of PS2 and were more fond of the original game's set up, rejoice that PS2 will be moving over to the lattice. Though it's not exactly identical to PS1, it never will be and shouldn't be. I'm very much in favor of the connection change since I feel it'll greatly help the flow of combat. Before this, most bases had around 5-6 connection, this has been brought down to about 3-4. In some cases, the small outposts are now a two way connection between the larger facilities. This creates a very defined front line of offense and defense when heading toward those facilities. Cutting off the enemy is still a very viable option, and really I feel it'll have far greater benefits than before due to having fewer options where you can attack from. This definitely won't fix all the current problems with the game, but it's a good step in the right direction. The change is only for Indar right now, Esamir and Amerish will get those changes sometime within the next few months it seems. (Hopefully very soon, even though it won't change Esamir all that much.)

All About Birds

Lots of bird happenings lately. This guy here started eating out of my hand. He's pretty skiddish and I'm surprised he gets that close sometimes seeing how cautious he is all the time. Although he also doesn't like the phone so it's even more surprising that he stayed around for this. There are these times when he's not jittery at all, at these times, he's almost digging into the bag of food I have as I'm reaching in to get it for him. Most of the birds don't get close if I'm moving about at all.

Then we have this guy who follows me around sometimes. He's been getting really close for the last 2 months and refused to eat from my hand until recently. He likes to follow me around for awhile and often attempts communication. He does things a bit different than the other birds who were brave enough to eat directly from me though. Almost every time he does, he'll first bite or peck my hand once. Not hard, hes never broken skin, but it's a very consistent behavior. I have 3 assumptions on what it is, that being; It's a greeting, a warning of what he can do, or to establish dominance. The reason I thought of the last is he seems to be the dominant male in the area. He's almost always near the middle of where I work, usually up high, and typically always vocalizing. Far more than the other males in the area. When using the bill up posture, the other males will back down from him most of the time. He's also the biggest grackle there.

I've read up on someone else that had this same experience with a grackle. Would feed directly from his hand, and the bird would give a modest peck or bite first. His assumptions are the same as my first two assumptions.

All the Candies!
Here's a game that Slaix showed me. I don't want to say anything about it, otherwise I'll spoil things.

Also WhattayaBrian has picked up his DT3 demo LP again. He seems to be a pretty busy guy.

Birds and Video Games

For the first time ever, I own a smartphone. It's an HTC Evo something or other. I've found it has quite a few uses, such as checking my Facebook and email while at work. Texting my roommates about random stuff that happens at work. Reading various articles while at work. Checking Planetside 2 test server stuff... while at work.

Most importantly though, taking pictures of grackles while at work. Its uses in reducing productivity are immense. In all seriousness though, being able to check these sorts of things when I'm away from my computer and in a moment of not having much else to do, it is a very handy device, and saves me time. Run-ons don't even care! Here's a random screenshot of something!

This can actually happen.

There really are a lot of birds in DT3.

Those Extra Things
Gate 5 is almost all based on the level design with very few major things happening until near the end. It follows closer to Super Metroid's method of progression in simply letting the player figure out where their new power up would allow them to go. It's split up in 3 major sections plus a hub. The only help given is which of these sections the player should be in.

There's times when I feel something extra would greatly enhance the player's engagement, even if the extra bit doesn't really have any major purpose. For example, in Gate 5, there's a scripted scenario around getting the Morph Ball. That segment of gameplay could just as easily work with the player simply grabbing the upgrade and that being the end of it. How do you guys approach situations like this?

A Thing About This
Anyone played Fez? It was that little platform where you shift the world around 90 degrees. So the link above is a review that are my thoughts almost exactly. While the review is a bit satirical and overly hateful at times, it hits on my main issue with the game. I disagree with the bit about the music being bad though, the reviewer seemed like he was getting his hate on during that segment. I felt the ambient music fit well with the empty, shallow gameplay.

But that aside, remember Ys3? It was pretty awesome and this remix does well in reminding me of it.

And while we're on the topic of music, Smooth McGroove did this.

Writers Block

I can't hold off this post any longer cause I'd like to mention a new LP. Damn writers block. Does that count for blogging? I'll say yes. Before I go any further, I'll be out of town and unavailable this Wednesday, Thursday, and half of Friday.

Grackles
The male grackle mentioned in the last post is almost eating out of my hand. He has no problems running within a few inches of me now. What's fun and interesting for me, is after he's done eating, he'll stick around and try to communicate. This is a behavior I've found that's common with ravens and crows after having extended contact with a human. While we can't effectively communicate, I find it nifty they try.

Most of the birds around my workplace have paired up now. I don't know if the above bird found a mate yet, but often times when he approaches, so does a female, and it's the same one each time. He was also the first to greet me when I came to work yesterday.

A DT3 Demo LP
WhattayaBrian, who did a DT1 LP some time ago, has taken on doing a recorded run through the DT3 demo. It is mostly unedited, though at times, he'll bring the video to chipmunk voice speeds when repetitive actions are taken, such as failing to get an item or dying repeatedly. He does voice commentary throughout it and is easy on the ears. I've watched all of it so far, especially considering I'm in DT3 mode and seeing how someone plays (with commentary) can be the best feedback. Early level tweaks have occured due to his LP as well as implementing some of his good suggestions, as well as some minor changes due to my more asinine UI decisions.

In episode 8 of this, he streamed his gameplay to me while he was recording so we could do dual commentary. That was a lot of fun and it may happen again before the LP is over.

Sometime in the coming month, I should be doing another DT3 video, showcasing a few things.

Edited In (I've been meaning to mention this)
Some time after the trilogy is complete (maybe a couple months), I'll be giving out the project file for all 3 games. There's no reason to keep it to myself after I'm done with the game. But, and I'll say this again when the event occurs, I will not be supporting it. There's a lot going on with it and I will be giving very little help on how to use the project. I may have a document along with it that highlights a few tidbits, but that will be it. The code, specifically for DT1, is pretty bad. It's commented well. (Though that isn't consistent throughout.) I figure this question may come up, so there we go. Plus I've seen that people have searched for 'Distorted Travesty Engine'. There were 3 searches on that topic this month so far.

You will need to have the Standard version of Game Maker 8.1. The Lite version is not compatible with any of the DT games.

Progress Comes With A Voice

The birds are all back. My 3 birds that usually hung around my work are all running about their daily routines and periodically stopping by to ask for food. Even the bird that ate from my hand is back daily now, so that's really nice to see again. One of them doesnt approach too often, but she's often seen collecting materials for building a nest. Most of the times that I see her on the ground, she's got a beak full of grass. Even one of the males have opened up to me and been closing the distance.

DT3 Progress
Gate 5 development has started recently, and like the times I started other gate levels, I actually put the progress on hold for about a week to address other problems with the game or just things that have been settling for awhile. On the Gate 5 stuff, I've had a lot of help from Ano0maly on making the Samus set more interesting, but without overpowering it compared to the Megaman set. He's been a lot of help and I'm sure his input will be great for the rest of the gate level.

Acapella
I don't really like it, but like all things, there are a few exceptions. A youtube user who goes by SmoothMcGroove does acapella for video game music and it sounds really good. For me, the best goes to his parody of a song by Fall Out Boy. This is something pretty awesome and fun to listen to. I guarantee it'll bring you a smile.

Something I've Been Asked on Occasion
Has been about my background with game development or multimedia in general. My first 'real' dive into games was with C++, which after having messed with quite a handful of languages, I feel it is a horrid language to start someone with. The progression the class went was:
- Hello World
- Variables, Strings, Input, Output
- Structs
- Classes
Compress this all into about 6 weeks in a class intended for people who have never seen a line of code. There's a few small details mixed in the list above, but those are the main points. For people this class was intended for, it went far too fast for most of us to understand what we were really doing. Going into object classes, it wasn't explained well what that was really doing or the power behind object orient programming. Having taken a look at the curiculum at a later date, I realized it wasn't the instructor who was giving us hell.

Visual Basic, or even Javascript, (to me anyway) is a better language to start someone with.
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After that, I went into art... yep... It was world modeling and texture painting. I really enjoyed texture painting, though this was before the days of normal mapping, parallax mapping, and all the millions of other layers we have today. I enjoyed painting the diffuse map. A lot of my 3D days were spent in Unreal, making maps and scripts for that and trying to make the Karma math engine not suck. (Unreal Engine 2.5) I enjoyed making maps that featured a series of Tomb Raider like traps, one leading into the other. I'd upload those maps with the associated scripts here, but those have sadly long been lost into digital nothingness.

After that, I discovered the magic of frien scripting. And that's where we are now.